Monday

12/1/03, around ten o’clock in the morning: Heard a song by the Postal Service on college radio this morning right after I dropped the webmonster off at work. The muted attack of the keys vs. the great crispness of Gibbard’s voice, the jaunty little rhythm, the glorification of feeling wistful: are the Postal Service the ultimate indie singles-radio band? Or just the best one since Pavement? I enjoy hearing their albums, sure, but I love hearing them on the radio. They have some of what Thin Lizzy had as a singles act: a canny investment in emotionalism, a considered affection for specific forms of sadness.

Ten ‘til noon: Diabolic’s Infinity Through Purification just gets better every time I play it. Better and better and better. The solos are prime chunks of Tampa real estate: sparks off the Azagthoth touchstone, but somehow less frantic, much dreamier. The whole record has a weirdly reflective quality to it after repeated listenings, though at first blush it was, of course, standard death metal. This is the barrier to digging death metal, I think: you have to be immersed in it to really hear what distinguishes one band from another, and their press kits all say the same thing: “most brutal ever,” “new levels of brutality,” “brutal brutal tres tres brutal,” etc. Infinity Through Purification, though, is a brilliantly sequenced album that sort of engulfs the listener gradually, opening itself up a little more with each step: all you have to do is give in. Completely great record.

Late afternoon: package came from Forced Exposure with lots of interesting stuff in it, particularly Powerslaves: An Electro Tribute to Iron Maiden, which, from its title on through to its largely fantastic content, inspires the kind of questioning that (for me at least) makes great dance music so much fun to listen to. Main question here: is/was electro an essentially conservative thing? Or is/was it essentially not conservative at all? The best tracks on this CD are engaging the question (which is essentially a question about how to express one’s feelings toward/about perspective) directly and (oddly/not-oddly) with an often sensuous, luxurious touch: Ra-x’s take on “Wasted Years,” Rude 66’s version of early-Maiden fave “Killers,” Mr. Velcro Fastener’s downright earnest version of “The Trooper.” The worst are so enamored of Yello’s “I Love You” that they cannot envision more interesting ways of re-fracturing the past and reimagining our youth. The great treatments outnumber and overshadow the less fun ones, though. People should buy this record for each other for Christmas.

4:15: went to pick up the webmonster from work: more car radio. On the way there, some screamo with really nice, thick, fully-present guitars. (Screamo when it’s bad just assumes that guitar-squeal is enough and doesn’t seem to pay enough attention to the balance between the instruments.) On the way back, something that sounded a lot like early Savage Republic.

Once home, Powerslaves again. This thing is probably going to occupy my attention for long periods of time throughout the week.

Went to the market and came back – nothing good on the radio either way. Once home, downloaded “The Horn Track” by Egyptian Empire on the advice of Jess, who pointed to a link where one could hear the song that had completely transported him for a few minutes. I like it, but fear that my attempts to “get” jungle are doomed. Electro goads me into wild fits of theory, but to my ears jungle sounds mostly like the modern world itself: “rock and roll,” kind of, which I can dig, I guess. This one mainly floated right past me and the webmonster thought it was the Chemical Brothers. That sound you hear is Jess getting mad.

In the evening, before enjoying some television with the webmonster, listened to Akercocke’s Choronzon, about which I’m writing for the Phoenix New Times. I have a sort of gentlemen’s agreement with myself not to write in LPTJ about things I’ve agreed to write elsewhere, so for the rest of the week I’ll be listing such items by name only.

 

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